Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of his sauce | Hacker News Reader

Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of his sauce

marketplace.org

149 pointsjmacd140 comments

God bless Sriracha. I'm willing to take the dent in my average post score, that's how much I love the dang stuff. Long live Sriracha.

P.S. You haven't smelled a bad factory smell until you've driven past the sugarbeet processing plants in Nampa, Idaho, or the miles upon miles of factory farm dairies in eastern Idaho. Maybe Sriracha could use something like that for their Chewbacca defense.

Dairy farms are nothing compared to pig farms. Absolutely foul. The smell is so penetrating it feels like you can smell it through your eyeballs. Cow manure you can get use to, but I could never get use to pig shit.

Papermills are also infamously smelly, though you can get use to those pretty quickly.

I still remember being a kid visiting a pig farm in elementary school. Why they subjected us to this, I do not know.

Well, at one point, we were "allowed" to stand next to the manure pit, which was a cylindrical tank with no top. I poked my head over...

Did you know that some stenches can be so intense that they actually have wet vapor and can sting your eyes? I didn't know until that day. But after that day, I never forgot.

Why they subjected us to this, I do not know.

That is easy... to make sure you didn't become pig farmers.

Slaughter yards are the worst. Drive north on I-29 from Omaha to Sioux City and you can smell the city from 30 miles out. Its nickname is Sewer City, and it actually made it hard for Gateway Computers to attract talent.

Hmm, finally that cow logo makes sense.. ;)

I think your information might be a little out of date. The Sioux City stockyards have been closed for over 10 years: http://amarillo.com/stories/032802/usn_smelly.shtml

I grew up in Sioux City in the 80s and you could smell a little, but even then the stockyards were significantly scaled back from their 1924 peak. I was there a few months ago and there is no smell any more.

I make that drive at least six times a year. Still stinks to high heaven. It's about the only thing that makes my kids look up from their iPads. With the stockyards closed, perhaps it's a longterm residual smell, or processing plants that are still around?

On a side note, I wonder how many head of cattle were slaughtered there over time.

My dad’s extended family was involved in the papermill business in the hills of North Carolina. The running joke was, “Smells like money.”

That line has been running for over 2 millennia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecunia_non_olet

They weren't by any chance near Candler, were they? That entire town smells like ass.

Having worked at a rendering plant for a couple of weeks during my (late) teenage years as an industrial temp worker, well, I can tell you what comes out of those places beats just about anything imaginable. Manure pits? Slaughterhouses? Way too fresh, my friends, to get anywhere near the full experience we endured. Think slow-cooked rot--and we were the ones on cleanup duty picking up bones and other ephemera left behind.

Here's a good taste of what one could expect, and it really was amazingly terrible prior to the stench becoming peripheral from exposure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_%28animals%29

A friend and I spent an entire summer working jobs nobody in our (typically) white, middle-class peer group would dare even consider to touch in order to understand for ourselves just how important and respectful these roles were in our daily lives. And boy, let me tell you, it was an amazing and formative experience; I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world. It was "Dirty Jobs" 10 years before the show came out, and in more than a couple of cases, likely illegal given our age versus risk at the time.

It smells pretty bad, but by the end of a day I just don't notice it anymore. Unless standing right near the manure pit.

Reminds me of this horrific and epic Rolling Stone article about pig farms. It's long, but worth reading:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/boss-hog-the-dark-s...

You can get 'used' to a smell of a papermill, I guess except that typically the fumes and particulates are toxic. There's a difference between merely experiencing an odor and ingesting unhealthy chemicals through respiration, though often people seem to not realize that the former often means the latter.

I disagree. I spent almost a year at Fort Gordon in Augusta, GA for military training. That was 2003, I still remember what it smells like.

I spent 18 years in a papermill town (the company, or the family that owned it, basically owned the entire town). Still remember what it smelled like, but it stops bothering you for the most part after awhile.

The real issue is that they switch up what they are making every few months or so, so the smell changes periodically. Whenever that happens you start noticing the smell again for a few more days. After a few years you'll become pretty good at ignoring that general class of smells though.

Agreed - there is a paper mill about 45 minutes drive from where I live and the smell really depends on the day. Some days you can drive by and not even notice an odor. Other days your eyes are watering. Driving the other direction about an hour there are mint growers and processors (they ferment it in mobile fermenters). I don't even like mint, but it makes for a nice aroma when the entire valley is minty fresh.

The REAL issue is that they're poisoning everyone. It's hard for your organs to ignore that.

You keep saying that, but I'm not actually seeing it. Industry isn't good for you, but it is pretty damn low on my list of concerns.

Nonsense. There is absolutely no question that emissions from papermills include chemicals and particulates that are harmful to human health. Whether you, personally are cognizant of it consciously is a different matter.

From http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

"Pulp and paper is the third largest industrial polluter to air, water, and land in both Canada and the United States, and releases well over 100 million kg of toxic pollution each year.[5]

Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world's energy use. The pulp and paper industry uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry."

This affects each of us negatively regardless of whether we notice or are concerned.

I was really disagreeing with the post I was responding too, and it seems you're more disagreeing with that than with my statement.

I don't think anyone can ever get fully accustomed to the presence of toxic chemicals in the air. Your body and mind are doing their best to make sure you're aware of them.

I'm not sure what is worse, pigs or chickens.

As someone who grew up on a farm which at one point had around 800 hogs and 5000 chickens,

chickens.

Good point, they may actually be tied. Chickens make cows smell good in comparison...

A friend of mine who is an industrial photographer got an assignment to photograph an anchovy processing plant. He said that you could smell the plant from over ten miles away. Part of his contract was to have all of his clothes and equipment replaced since there was no way to get the smell out.

ha ha, I can confirm. I live and work in Nampa and the beet factory puts off a stink like you wouldn't believe. What's awesome is how the smell transforms from day to day. Some days it smells like strong peanut butter, some days it smells kind of musty and some days it smells extremely putrid. Luckily I moved across town a few years ago and the smell rarely makes it to my subdivision.

Nothing beats a fish sauce factory. Fermenting fish, mhmm...

I wonder what it is like to live near a Surströmming factory...

In Singapore it is illegal to bring Durian indoors; its odor is so pungent.

Durians are some of the tastiest fruit out there. Could never understand why people can't stand the smell. Although I did grow up with them.

The best description of Durian I've read: "It smells rank to the unaccustomed, like someone mixed rotting bananas with unwashed feet and baby poop, but tastes quite a bit better."

They do taste good, I can attest.

Can confirm, I grew up on a dairy near Twin Falls Idaho, and now live in Boise (near Nampa). Occasionally I can smell that sugar beet plant from my house and it is as bad or worse than any dairy.

Y'all never had to study next to a latex-processing factory. Smelled like a million old sneakers. Consider yourselves lucky.

Surprised no one has yet mentioned the uniquely awful smell of driving past a chicken farm on a hot day.

I think the worst smell I've ever been near would be a dry dog food plant...

I've read lots of interesting stories about the founding of this company, and of course I love the product. It's nice to see an entrepreneur that values the quality of their product first, before business considerations.

As for the dispute with the city, it's the city that enticed him to move his operations there, then he invested his money, and now they're trying to shut him down. Very shady business on the part of the city of Irwindale, something that demands a judge's attention...

Here's an LA Times story that corroborates your comment, and adds some additional insight: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1110-sriracha-20131110,0,...

> Inspectors from the South Coast Air Quality Management District have visited the plant several times without issuing a citation. Tran said in court documents that the complaints about the smell originated with an Irwindale city councilman's son.

Wow, I would've never imagined the Sriacha founder to be such a nice, conscientious guy. A Nobel Peace Prize for him:

> Q: What do you think about copy-cat Srirachas? A: “It’s good…[take] a red flower, it looks good but [it’s] not colorful. You need to have green and yellow ... So [in] the market, [if there was] only my hot sauce, [people] cannot compare. More competitors [are] better for consumer [choice].”

> Q: Inflation has more than tripled food prices since you started making the hot sauce, but you have never changed your wholesale price. Why? A: “The price has increased…but we can cover the increased [food] price. We just want to sell more product….[also] if we export to some expensive country, I don’t have two prices. Not domestic price and another country, another price – only one price.”

Q: What do you think Sriracha’s fandom? A: “I enjoy it. I enjoy it because more and more people enjoy my product. I need to say thank you [to] everyone. Help me big or a little bit – I thank you.”

Given his relative success (the article states its a multi-million dollar business) running the outgassing from the plant through a water bath should be pretty straightforward. Basically blowing the air through pipes which bubble it underwater. The water runoff would then have the pepper oils in it.

Next up Sirachi Spicey Hot Bottled Water!

Wouldn't you need to add some sort of detergent to get the non-polar oils to dissolve in water? Disposing of that mixture could be tricky.

You don't need the oils to dissolve in water, only to condense out of the air into the water.

Wouldn't just regular old soap do it? Soapy water mixed with pepper shouldn't be too nasty, but then again, California....

You want to dispose of soapy water!?! What are you, some kind of environmental terrorist? Get a hazmat team in here, STAT!

-- California

Soapy water contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

This is how to make "liquid smoke flavor" aka "bacon flavor", sriracha's only rival.

Californian NIMBY-ness strikes again.

> a request from the southern California city of Irwindale to close the hot sauce’s factory because of complaints over smell from neighbors.

In fairness to the NIMBYs, the factory has grown immensely in the last few years and the "smell" is aerosolized peppers, basically pepper spray.

To quote the LA Times: "...the hot sauce’s production facilities are, residents are complaining of burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches caused by a powerful, painful odor that the city says appears to be emanating from the factory during production."

In fairness to the factory, every resident everywhere to ever live near anything they didn't like, from power lines to roller skating rinks, has developed burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches. It could be true, but half the time people don't even realize they have symptoms until a "spokesperson for the community" reaches out and informs them of the terrible conditions they're living in.

My intuition tells me there exists a more causal link between airborne chili and jalepeno peppers and burning eyes than exists between a roller skating rink and burning eyes.

Yes, people actually do get watery eyes from cutting onions. It's not just that they are sad and blaming it on the onions out of shame.

At what part per million do burning eyes actually happen?

At what part per million does the factory actually affect the surrounding atmosphere?

Without any idea at all about these numbers your intuition is worthless.

A timeless story about this: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/11099-massive-revelat...

In more serious manifestations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_student_poisoning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_West_Bank_fainting_epidemi...

Yeah, unless they've been examined by a doctor, it's hard to overstate the power and seeming realness of psychological symptoms that may simply be triggered by a bad smell.

All of a sudden this joke makes sense:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha_odor

It actually moved to Irwindale from Rosemead.

It's even more amazing when you look at a satellite map of the city. It consists mostly of warehouses, industry and a rock quarry. You'd think they would want companies like Huy Fong Foods. https://maps.google.com/?q=Irwindale,+CA

Looks like there's residential pretty close by: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Huy+Fong+Foods&hl=en&ll=34.09...

I'm not sure which map you're looking at. Irwindale is located in LA county, one of the most populated areas of the US. Obviously if the smell didn't go very far it wouldn't be much of a problem.

You're not from around here. Irwindale is in the middle of nowhere, next to a freeway and a rock quarry.

The AQMD is one of the shadiest governmental agencies there is - apparently their main function is to demand enough shakedown money from SoCal businesses so they leave town.

The AQMD actually inspected the plant several times...and found nothing wrong. The complaints about the smell originated from an Irwindale councilman's son.

See http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1110-sriracha-20131110,0,..., also posted in another comment on this thread.

This comment sounds really condescending considering it sounds like you have never lived near LA to be that judgmental about any of your parent poster's supposed inaccuracies.

The city of Irwindale is the one trying to get it shut down.

It's the responsibility of Sriracha to not reduce the quality of life of others. How is it any different than pollution? If Sriracha is pumping irritants into the air and it affects neighbors, the should be doing a better job of filtering their exhaust. It's not fair that their property value drops because a neighbor isn't being responsible.

Notice that you said "if". There haven't been any actual studies conducted to prove or disprove that the Sriracha factory is polluting the air surrounding the factory -- only anecdotal evidence about asthma symptoms flaring up and burning eyes. There are official channels in place for factories to be shut down for pollution. They can't be used in this case because the AQMB has yet to find any air quality violations at the factory.

If Sriracha is really causing these symptoms, wouldn't they be most prevalent in people who work at the actual factory in question? Why is there no anecdotal evidence of their loss of quality of life?

Having more than passing familiarity with this, the mechanisms to close down a factory due to pollution are long, agonizing, expensive for the city and its people, and unlikely to succeed.

Part of this is an ever moving, never quite enough demand for "actual studies" and evidence. If you provide an epidemiology study, they'll demand clinical trials. Clinical trials? Not generalizable, bring on the epidemiology. But you haven't done a proper toxicology study....

Is it just 'smell', or is it aerosolised capsaicin? The latter is not really fair to characterise as NIMBY-ness.

It's just smell. And media hype. But mostly just smell.

What do you think the smell is composed of? (Hint: pepper molecules)

I think being transported to the International Spaaaaaace Station [1] is one of the highest honors a commercial object of any kind can receive. I remember reading about it in this article [2].

Love the stuff, it's on the table in front of me now.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/n1Y7B.jpg [2] http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-21/sriracha-hot...

Serious? I have like 2 of those bottles in my closet on 5 feet away from me. Someone always brings it along from Brussels... (live in Belgium), so this is quite awesome. Really didn't expect this :-D

Great hot spicey sauce!

I've always wondered this: What is availability like for this stuff in foreign countries? I can go to the store now (NE US) and find the original plus another 4-5 knockoffs. Even cheap places like Save-A-Lot has bottles sometimes for $3 or so.

There is some in my local supermarket, in France, as well as a few other brands. I don't think it's difficult to find anywhere.

Edit - looks like in Europe we usually have a Thai brand, while in the US it's mostly the interviewed guy's brand. I never paid attention, I don't like it anyway.

Probably Sambal Olek chili paste is what you're referring to. It's my other favorite "not really that hot but yummy" hot sauce.

For hot sauce, I don't bother with anything under 100k SHU (tobasco for breakfast, however)

In recent visits to Asia, I haven't seen it in restaurants/food stalls in Vietnam, Malaysia, or Taiwan. Haven't looked for it supermarkets.

It's because it really is an American invention loosely based upon a Thai hot sauce.

The only place I have found it in Taiwan was at some Vietnamese restaurants run by American Born Chinese. I have seem some imitation ones in the supermarket.

Sriracha made its debut in Malaysia approximately a month ago, being sold for MYR 21.90 (28 oz) and MYR 13.90 (17 oz) by Ben's Independent Grocer in Solaris Dutamas.

Pretty nice profit margin there, now that the wholesale price is no longer a secret...

That's probably because it's not asian.

I've been unable to track it down in major supermarkets/grocers here in Australia, but the occasional Asian supermarket sells it (and sometimes knockoffs)

You can easily tell which are the knockoffs - http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/01/17/how-spot-fake-srirach...

I often find this one in supermarket in Sydney - http://minichariie.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_5044.jpg

As far as the name Sriracha hot sauce is concerned, that is actually the original original. They used to bottled it differently but have changed to this squeeze bottle just recently, probably to compete with the rooster brand.

In Austria (well, at least in Vienna) it is realatively easy to find Sriracha, but I haven't found a store that carries Huy Fung yet. The main brand in most stores is called Flying Goose, or something to that affect. It is noticeably sweeter (I think there is more sugar) and less spicy than Huy Fung. It is a bit tangier as well. I do hope to find the Huy Fung brand eventually, if I can!

Well, the place in Brussels is the only place i know where they sell this.

And even then, it's a friend of mine who brings it along (they know i like spicey stuff :) ).

But none the less, Belgium isn't an easy market for anyone. Dutch, french and even German language. In Brussels, there would probably be a lot of English speaking persons to ;-). So i wouldn't generalise my experience to anyone (every webapp requires localization here :-) )

I'm from NZ, I've never heard about this stuff till now. I just bought myself a couple of bottles here[0], $4.88NZD each, which is currently $4.05USD.

[0] http://www.mightymart.co.nz/product/Suree-Sriracha-Chilli-Sa...

That's a knock off brand (Huy Fong makes the rooster bottle) but likely will still be pretty tasty as there's more than one kind of "sriracha".

The brand difference is analogous to ketchup: Heinz vs everyone else - tastes a bit different but noticeable if you're used to it.

Gah! Thanks for the tip... it's hard work being a novice. :)

In Norway, it and its knockoffs are widely available in ethnic stores, but the price is closer to $8 than $3 for a big bottle.

We have quite a few different brands available in New Zealand. I'm not sure about the US one but there's some that are really good, some not so much. It's cheap.

Previous to the past couple of months, I had never seen any interviews with the founder of Sriracha. The Google Trends data also shows a big increase for searches on his company, Huy Fong Foods.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=Huy+Fong+Foods#q=Huy%...

Aside from increasing awareness about his product, why do you think he started doing interviews?

This may be a legitimate grassroots social media phenomenon - the sort that big multinationals try to create but fail at.

Sriracha has obviously been a mainstay at Asian restaurants for years. But like bacon, it didn't become A Thing until Digg/Reddit/the greater internet subculture rolled around.

Folks like the Oatmeal started writing digital love letters to the sauce[1], which helped boost its mythical status amongst the Reddit crowd.

I'm guessing he started doing interviews when people actually started wanting to interview him. Prior to the internet's obsession with sriracha it was just an easily-overloooked condiment associated with Asian food.

[1] http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

Before Digg/Reddit/The Internet every college kid in California was obsessed with it. I still an old roommate who travels around the world with her own little bottle in case she can't find it locally.

I remember an article from around 2009 where he talks about the drunken voicemails he received. It was in the NY Times so it isn't like they have been hiding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?_r=3&

I remember sriracha being a thing back in 99/00 we were eating boatloads of the stuff on ramen noodles. Of course I had friends who were waiters and bartenders, so that might have had something to do with it.

Sriracha has become the new 'bacon' lately. Oatmeal has been proclaiming it for quite some time, with (I believe) another cartoon being written earlier this summer.

Combine that with the 'Big Government versus little sauce' angle and you have a situation Slacktivists froth at the mouth for.

I'm pretty sure bacon has been a thing for longer than the internet.

Apparently his factory is being threatened with shutdowns because it makes all the surrounding properties smell like Sriracha.

Edit - apparently the judge denied the shutdown, possibly in part to the huge amount of outpouring by the community.

http://www.refinery29.com/2013/10/56374/sriracha-lawsuit-fac...

Thanks for the link. It makes sense now.

> Besides increasing awareness about his product, why do you think he started doing interviews?

Because he's in court facing a factory shutdown?

> why do you think he started doing interviews?

> On Nov. 22, a judge is set to hear a request from the southern California city of Irwindale to close the hot sauce’s factory because of complaints over smell from neighbors.

Thanks. I skipped over the first section when I read the article.

He's been doing marketing for ages. Search back on HN a bit; every six months or so someone links to a new profile piece on him and his business. He's just really good at PR.

Hot peppers can be deadly to people who are not used to spicy food. I bought a few raw habañeros a few weeks ago. I have cooked with jalapeño and serrano's but never habañero. Wow! Just a thin slice was hot beyond description. My wife is hyper-sensitive to spicy food. I was so certain these things were dangerous to her that I threw them away after using a couple to cook with. Here it is in numbers [0].

I can see the potential for fumes from the manufacture of hot sauces being irritating a lot of people. Sriracha isn't particularly hot. If you really want to try hot buy a bottle of Dave's Insanity. BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO. They ask that you use it one drop at a time. Believe me, that is good advice.

Those not into hot sauces don't believe that these sauces actually have taste. And sauces such as Dave's and Sriracha taste really good. There are many sauces that just burn. I don't know many hot sauce afficionado's who enjoy sauces devoid of taste.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

Peppers are particularly difficult to cook with. Their oils are what is spicy, so you get variations based on growing conditions as well as how you prepare it. To reduce spiciness, remove all seeds, rinse with cold water and put it in a cold salt water bath for a couple of hours. Not enough to change the flavor, but just until you start to see the oils collect on the surface. This only works with raw peppers. If you then lightly sear the outside, you can get more of the flavor without the spiciness getting into the rest of the food as much. With the right sized pieces, you can then pull out the spicy chunks and still have the nice flavor.

> To reduce spiciness, remove all seeds, rinse with cold water and put it in a cold salt water bath for a couple of hours.

This is popular opinion, but I've also heard from cooks that the seeds don't contain much spiciness in them, but the pulp around them does. Could it be that the outsides of the seeds are covered in oil and the insides are actually neutral?

I was once surprised by a burger in Vegas that had a sauce made from Ghost Peppers[1], also known as Bhut Jolokia, which is about twice as potent as habanero, but feels far more painful.

On the scoville scale, the ghost pepper sits very near the top, with a rating of ~1 million scoville units, which sits comfortably above the average consumer-grade pepper spray. Eating it ... tastes like pepper spray.

That said, since then, I've decided to build up a tolerance to it. I've always enjoyed spicy foods, and the spicier the better, but the ghost pepper has proven to be a tough nut to crack, as I've yet to get past using it in fairly small amounts in flake form.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_chili

Good luck building up tolerance; I found it to be a lot easier than I thought it might be. I was given a few Ghost Pepper seeds in the Spring and prior to the last Fall harvest I worked up to a tolerance of about two tablespoons of chopped peppers. However, like any tolerance, once you do this 'lesser' peppers such as habanero cease to have much impact.

so, nobody asked, because they assumed it was a trade secret? Hilarious.

This would be a great place to bootstrap a startup. Cheap rent, this sauce is great on ramen, and the smell would make it so only the most dedicated co-founders who really love their product can stand to work on it. Almost zero distractions because no one would come to visit. It would also help with the 'elevator pitch' although you would have to get your timing down to sub-floor latency because everyone is certain to leave at the next stop.

You know how the Soylent guy wants to have tap water and tap soylent in homes of the future?

In my humble opinion, I think we need tap sriracha in homes of today! Down with soylent!

Alternatively you could combine the two. Some sriracha might make make soylent a bit more palatable...

(This comment is intended as humor... I have never tried soylent)

I would have asked why they need to put preservatives in a chili sauce. Most have none and yet can sit on a table for years.

A lot of hot sauces have vinegar as a core ingredient, which acts as a preservative.

I buy it for like $2.50 retail, so that's kind of awesome.

What I find most interesting about this company is that he's never advertised. He started selling it locally to cooks and it spread by word of mouth.

Or taste in mouth, I suppose.

The smell they're complaining about... does it smell like the product? Because if it smells like the product, I'd love to live next door!

What a lot of people are complaining about isn't necessarily the smell of it. The fumes from the plant are essentially pepper spray. People are complaining about difficulty breathing and its getting in their eyes.

You'd love to live in a Mace pepper spray cloud?

With sriracha it's always worth the pain.

> Because if it smells like the product, I'd love to live next door!

It would smell like that for a few hours, and then you wouldn't smell it anymore.

After that even if you ate it you wouldn't get the proper taste, so I'd think you'd stay as far away as possible.

If only he had followed it up with the recipe..

It's primarily just chilis. From the bottle:

Chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite and xanthan gum.

Remove the last 3 ingredients then just shoot for texture. for any given bottle, probably 75% chili, 10% vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic for the last 15%.

If you can match the consistency, you can probably match the flavor. You just need a line on fresh California Red Jalepenos.

I'd probably throw out the salt and just go for MSG.

Your macbook air is just plastic, metal, and some silicone. Just throw a couple of those together too while you're at it.

I'll go out on a limb and say that cooking is a tad easier and more accessible than building a MacBook Air.

i disagree. to create tasty hot sauce, one must first create the universe.

Hot sauce really is just about the chilis.

My wife makes an amazing Caribbean pepper sauce. The secret? Caribbean peppers...

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/how-tuesday-make-your-own-h...

Hang out with some small-batch hot-sauce makers.

--Robert

> probably 75% chili, 10% vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic for the last 15%.

But there is more sugar, and more salt, and more garlic, than vinegar.

xanthan gum is likely for texture, so why remove it then go for the texture after that? You can buy xanthan gum. I know it's also used in gluten free baking.

It's likely for shelf-stable texture. Assuming he doesn't want start a bottle line for his own sauce, he can probably avoid it.

Based on how different the generic alternatives taste, it must be more difficult than this.

I think the magic is in the peppers and overall ingredient quality more so than the exact mixture. Given some trial and error in an afternoon with good ingredients, and I'm pretty sure you could figure this out. Hell, you can probably make even better :)

I have not tried this recipe yet as I have not been able to get my hands on a large quantity (for me) of good chilis, but I've had this bookmarked to play around with:

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Sriracha-aka-Rooster-Sau...

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-make-sriracha-from... is a good resource.

Hmm, impressively humble and forthright. As the Germans would say, I have nothing to complain about.

No need for sales nor marketing!

So it's popularity has a lot to do with the 2$ a bottle price?

Sure, it tastes good but can we track down a fair bit of the popularity/availability on shelves to the cost factor?

It's cheap, so a lot of students tried it. They loved it, told their friends, told their parents.

I remember when I had this in Vietnam for the first time four years ago - I was blown away. I wondered why it hadn't been sold in the USA, why I'd never heard of it, and lo and behold, the very next year, it started showing up in various places.

Is "four years ago" a typo? Huy Fong Foods, maker of the most popular brand of Sriracha in the US has been in business since the eighties.

No, you just suck at reading comprehension.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com